Belding, home of Gus Macker, to host 40th season celebration

Owner Scott McNeal, alias Gus Macker, started the tournament in his parents' driveway in Lowell in 1974 and the event later moved to Ionia County in 1987.

By John RaffelSpecial to the Ionia Sentinel-Standard

This won't be any ordinary season for the Belding Gus Macker 3-on-3 tournament.The 40th season of the event will be officially recognized at Belding, which has been the hometown focus of the Macker since the 1980s.Owner Scott McNeal, alias Gus Macker, started the tournament in his parents' driveway in Lowell in 1974 and the event later moved to Ionia County in 1987.Since then, the event has expanded into different Mackers across the country. The Belding Macker is one of 42, but it will be the showcase event in the county and town that hosts the Macker headquarters.The event is scheduled for Aug. 3 to 4 in Belding, with an online deadline of July 25 to enter. For more information or to register, visit www.macker.com.McNeal and his Macker staff have had special celebrations every five years starting with the 25th, when the Macker Hall of Fame has added new members. This tournament will take on special meaning with the 40th celebration, and is set to bring in new inductees again this year."We'll do a Hall of Fame week of stuff. We'll have a golf outing, a banquet and induction ceremony," McNeal said. "Obviously there will be a lot more teams playing in the event. We won't know until we get a little closer. We're planning a lot of stuff. A lot of details we have yet to have worked out."For the 35th anniversary, Tom Crean, presently the coach of the Indiana Hoosiers and a one-time active Gus Macker participant, spoke at the celebration."We don't have an official speaker yet. We're trying to decide how much to include," McNeal said.The banquet and Hall of Fame ceremonies are set for Aug. 2, with the golf outing tentatively scheduled for the previous day.McNeal is planning on adding 10 new inductees into the hall and has already announced seven.1. Mike Lavery. He's the organizer who brought the event to Quincy, Ill., one of the main Macker stops and which has hosted the event for more than 20 years.2. Larry Wray of Ohio. He played in the tournament for many years and has coached some of the men's teams.3. Judge Connors and his Ann Arbor Squad. "Every few times that we induct people, I have a fun group. There's a judge in Ann Arbor, Judge Connors, who has a group from Ann Arbor that has played in the tournament for years. He's a sitting judge and is hilarious," McNeal said. "He and his crew are going into the hall."4. The late Ernie Cryer. The former Grand Rapids referee died a couple of years ago. "He was one of the guys who for 20 to 25 years traveled the country with me, announced the games and was a very entertaining guy," McNeal said.5. Dean Wallin and Don Stabenow. The pair were professors with the recreation department at Central Michigan University in the 1970s and 1980s. Stabenow is retired, while Wallin is still an administrator there. "The two of them invented the Gus Busters system," McNeal said. "They're the ones that brought the first Gus Busters to Lowell. They were college students at Central."6. Dick Parfitt, former coach at Central Michigan. "He was the coach during the times a lot of the great Macker players, especially from Grand Rapids, played in my driveway," NcNeal said. "He was a big supporter of our event."7. Dream Kids. "I've taken a group of kids that play on my dream court," McNeal said. "I affectionately call them Dream Kids. It's four or five kids from the Grand Rapids and Cedar Springs area. They're 11, 12 or 13 years old. Because they're an example of what the event is about today with youth and family fun, we've decided to put them in, because they have great stories about Macker."